Reviewers

Review Process

The manuscript submission and peer review process is broken down into the following steps:

The Author submits a manuscript.

The Associate Editor assigns Reviewers to the manuscript.

The Reviewers review the manuscript.

The Associate Editor drafts a decision to be sent to the Author.

As a Reviewer, you are responsible for step #3. We ask that you please open manuscript review requests immediately to determine if the manuscript falls within your area of expertise or if you have a potential conflict of interest. If you accept a review assignment, we ask that you please submit your review within two weeks.

Navigating the System

There are two ways to gain access to the system. First, if you know your login name and password, you may log into the system from the home page. Alternatively, if you have received an email request to review, you may use the encrypted link from this email to be logged in and taken directly to the manuscript.

When you log into the system, you will be taken to your "Home" page. If you have been asked to review any manuscripts, you will see a link (or several links) with a red arrow on your desktop under the "Reviewer Tasks" header. Clicking this link will display the "Manuscript Details Screen," containing:

Detailed Information about a specific manuscript.

Links to the manuscript and associated files.

A list of "Manuscript Tasks" or links allowing you to:

Accept/Decline Reviewer Position

Check Status

Review Manuscript

(Not all links will be present all the time. Only the applicable links will be visible.)

If there are no red arrow visible on the "Home" page, then you are finished. There is no pending work you need to worry about.

Review Manuscript

Once you are logged into the system, click on a manuscript link preceded by a red arrow to view the "Manuscript" screen as described above. At the bottom of this screen under "Manuscript Tasks," you will see a red arrow next to a "Review Manuscript" link. Clicking on this link will display the review form. Please be sure to fill in all required information.

You will specifically be asked to comment on the following:

The ranking of the manuscript with respect to all manuscripts submitted to MCP in the interest of Scientific Significance, Technical Quality, and Novelty

Is the manuscript appropriate to the field of proteomics?

Action recommended for this manuscript (Accept or Reject)

Specific comments for the Authors (required) and for the Associate Editor (optional)

***PLEASE NOTE*** If you are asked to review a REVISED or RESUBMITTED manuscript, it will include a separate graphical abstract image in the files list on the review screen. In order to ensure high quality graphical abstracts published in the journal, we ask that you open this file and give feedback on whether it meets the criteria listed in our Instructions for Authors:

Please Note: Reviews are not saved until you hit the Save Draft and Continue button (at the bottom of the review form), and we also suggest that you compose your review using your normal word processor and copy/paste the review into this form. This will insure that you have a local copy in case of computer error. Please save a copy of your review offline for your records before you enter it online.

Getting Help

If you need additional help, you can click on the help signs spread throughout the system. A help dialog will pop up with context-sensitive help.

You may also contact the Journal Staff at any time by clicking the "Send Manuscript Correspondence" link under the "More Manuscript Info and Tools" header on the manuscript details screen.

Manuscript Status

You can get the status of your assigned manuscript(s) via:

Logging into the system with your password.

Clicking on the link represented by the manuscript tracking number and abbreviated title.

Clicking on the "Check Status" link at the bottom of the displayed page.

This procedure will display detailed tracking information about where the manuscript is in the submission/peer review process.